The baseball season is long. And we’re here to help: MLB Overnight covers the interesting (to us) night-in, night-out goings-on of the show.
Sho-sho debut
It wasn’t the most auspicious of pitching debuts for Shohei Ohtani.
The biggest splash in the offseason was Ohtani landing with the Los Angeles Angels. The two-way Japanese sensation arrived with much fanfare before someone inexplicably turned off the hot stove. The Milwaukee Brewers’ Keon Broxton, fighting for a spot on the Major League roster after the Crew landed Lorenzo Cain and Christian Yelich, gave the young Ohtani a warm welcome:
.@KeonDDBroxton tied this one up with the first #CactusCrew HR in the 2nd. #MILatLAA pic.twitter.com/GXNOeINOky
— Milwaukee Brewers (@Brewers) February 24, 2018
[Obligatory Uecker call, his first signature home run call of the season, not available at time of publication because apparently radio doesn’t exist on the internet.]
Ohtani got the hook in the second after mixed results, giving up two runs off two hits and a walk. He threw 21 pitches, 12 for strikes and while it’s not reasonable to draw conclusions after a Spring Training debut, Ohtani showed that he has a lot work to put in to live up to extraordinary expectations in Orange County.
Not to be outdone: Acuna struggles in spring debut
It wasn’t a banner day for the top two prospects according to MLB Pipeline. Braves prospect Ronald Acuna struggled in three hitless ABs–two strikeouts–in a 6-1 loss to the World Champion Houston Astros. Again, sample sizes seldom get smaller, and placing Acuna in the three-spot is probably not how a team should groom its future stars, but Acuna did acquit himself in the field with this tough-in-the-sun catch:
Collin McHugh had a strong Saturday for the Astros, striking out five in two innings of work. Whether he fights for the five-spot in a loaded Astros rotation or elevates his trade value, it’s hard to top that.
Arenado keeps Arenadoing: Winner, Rockies; also, everyone
Nolan Arenado is awesome. No one can deny this.
.@JPatterson1521 went 3-for-3 yesterday. Brian Mundell went 3-for-4. @Ry_McMahon went 2-for-3.
And Nolan went 😍-for-2. pic.twitter.com/x0QkD7rXbX
— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) February 25, 2018
Speaking to MLB.com, Arenado said he drove 45 minutes to the game. I think that home run covered the same distance. Oh, and Arenado feasts off lefties, with a career .313/.381/.579 slash line.
The official BtB position is that we think that’s pretty good.
Brent Sirvio is a co-founder of Bronx to Bushville. Khurram Kalim contributed to this piece.
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